Web system breaks equipment failure cycle

A major steel equipment manufacturing company approached Shell with a rolling mill gearbox bearing problem. A web-based diagnosis system helped to break into bearing failure cycles.

Shell has developed a web-based failure diagnosis expert system to help its steel customers break the cycle of repair costs and downtime.

The expert system draws on Shell's world-wide expertise in failure diagnosis.

Working with Shell's Failure Diagnosis team, customers can now log onto the Internet based site and view images on a portable laptop, allowing fast diagnosis in the field.

The expert system allows the user to identify different types of damage on their components by comparison with an extensive range of computer images.

The user can then pinpoint the specific cause of their problem and appropriate solutions are provided by the system to prevent reoccurrence.

Since 1996, Shell has used a CD-ROM based failure diagnosis expert system, which was posted to customers experiencing difficulties.

The move onto the web follows increased Internet awareness among customers and the demand for instant access to Shell's expertise.

Shell will continue to produces all information on CD-ROM for the benefit of customers without Internet access.

The failure diagnosis site is accessible by secure password and holds information on the diagnosis of rolling bearing failures.

Two more modules, currently available on CD-ROM, covering plain bearing and gear failures will be added to the site early next year.

The aim is to develop the site to cover the diagnosis of problems with entire pieces of machinery, for example combustion engines, compressors and turbines.

It will be applicable to all industrial sectors.

To enable customers to gain maximum benefit from the expert system, Shell also hosts up to 12 troubleshooting workshops for customers and Shell personnel around the world every year.

The most recent was held in November 2001 in Thailand.

A major steel equipment manufacturing company approached Shell with a bearing problem from one of the gearboxes in its rolling mill machinery.

Shell was able to diagnose the problem and show the manufacturer how to identify the problem in future, thereby enabling them to prevent a failure cycle.

Shell's Failure Diagnosis Team was also able to identify that the cause of repeated plain bearing failures at a customer's site was due to incorrect equipment setup rather than lubrication deficiencies, as had been claimed by the equipment manufacturer.

The expert system was used to convince the equipment manufacturer that the diagnosis was correct.

"Accurate diagnosis of equipment failure is essential if steel and metal companies want to break the cycle of repair costs and downtime," says Dr Sid Radcliff, head of Shell's Failure Diagnosis Team.

"Machinery failures that aren't diagnosed properly often repeat themselves, reducing reliability and creating a failure loop that can be hard to break.

Companies can now help themselves to diagnose and resolve machinery failures correctly and quickly by using Shell's web-based expert system while they are working in the field".

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